Practice management

Having more choices is a priority, but most workers are confident in their employer’s selection, study finds.

Agentreview.net launches this month, aiming to give consumers one location to find and critique local insurance agents.

Five years down the road, the insurance broker’s role in health insurance may be diminished, largely due to exchanges, consultants say. The role of the broker will change greatly in the process, they say, but in the near term it is a mixed story.

How high-cost specialty drugs are altering the duties of the benefit adviser and pharmacy benefit manager

Having a goal, understanding the workforce and communicating in a variety of ways helps increase participation.

Commentary: Want to grow your business? Then never ask a client for a referral, says columnist Nelson Griswold. Referral marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies, but it must be done the right way, he adds.

Commentary: Collective information is the new frontier when it comes to big data in the health care realm, says Lockton’s Kayla O’Neal

Commentary: Given the shifts in the industry, advisers also need to help plan sponsor clients think about retirement benefit programs from a different perspective, says T. Rowe Price’s Francisco Negron.

The cyber attack might affect group health plans, and plan sponsors need to identify if and/or how they are affected and what they need to do in response.

Benefit experts and thought leaders will discuss some of the most important and possibly industry-changing trends for the coming year at this year’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance in Atlantic City, Feb. 24-26.

In partnership with business intelligence data analytics firm miEdge, EBA introduces the first independent listing of top large-group employee benefit firms in the country to be ranked exclusively on health and welfare revenue.

Commentary: Americans must take the responsible course when it comes to health insurance coverage, says adviser David C. Smith.

Commentary: The market place has changed and your role must adapt. Columnist Jack Kwicien proves his point through an analogous set of market dynamics.

A new bipartisan bill has been introduced on the House floor to separate broker commissions from a medical loss ratio formula many in the industry say threatens agent compensation.

More employers are adding CI to their voluntary benefits package to combat rising out-of-pocket costs.

Consumers cite complex language, lack of time as roadblocks to making a purchase, study finds.

Brokers and agents say the state exchanges did little to engage them during the first enrollment period under the ACA, and many in the industry agree improving the partnership between the exchanges and brokers will be critical to the survival of the state marketplaces.

Commentary: The FBI is still investigating the potential causes of the data breach at Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer. There is still no clear indication who perpetrated the attack, reported Feb. 5, how they did so, or what could’ve been done to stop it, but informed sources point to a number of strong possibilities on all counts.

Not all corporate data breaches are of the spectacular variety that health insurer Anthem recently announced, involving 80 million members. But any company that offers a wellness program needs to take special precautions to ensure employee health information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Broker information was not compromised as part of a cyber-attack on Anthem’s IT system and the carrier says it is working with brokers to assist and inform their clients about the breach.